I have absolutely no issue with W/P getting on the team with a medical bye. They finished fourth at last year's worlds for heaven's sake! If that doesn't make you deserving of a bye, I don't know what does. Furthermore, even with a difficult GP season this year, they still nabbed two bronze medals, far better than anyone else fared (except for V/M). I just don;t think recovery by march is realistic given the nature of the injury, but if it does happen, more power to them!
The obvious choice for alternates would be Orford/Williams, of course, after their bronze medals. But, I can't help but think that Skate Canada must be pondering this. We are fighting for three spots to the Olympics, after all, and it's entirely possible that Gilles/Poirier could achieve this, but I wonder how their programs will be received by the worlds judges. Putting them aside, however, I think the next best team in terms of scoring potential would be Paul/Islam, if they could get through their programs the way that they did during their senior B events this year. They were scoring well into the mid 80's, and have improved greatly in speed and polish since then. I know they're inconsistent, but I also think they're a safer bet than Orford/Williams in terms of trying to scrounge out Olympic spots should the need arise, since I think O/W are incapable of those kinds of numbers even with a clean skate. Of course, there's really no way to justify sending them when they didn't finish third, and since they wren't going to 4CC, there's no avenue for them to "face off" against Orford/Williams, so to speak. Really, they should have gotten the chance to do at least that, especially since they're willing to let the men skate off at 4CC even though Rogozine was the clear victor there (in terms of bronze). Perhaps this is just wishful thinking from me.:disapp:
